Milton Nascimento

Milton Nascimento was born on October 26, 1942. He lived the first

from his music, however, was not enough to support him in the city.
Because of this, he worked during the day as a typist in an office of the
Furnas Electricity Company.

two years of his life in Rio de Janeiro. In 1945, his life was turned
upside down when his mother died of tuberculosis. The little boy

In 1964, with Wagner Tiso and Paulinho Braga, Nascimento formed the

moved to little Tres Pontas, a city between the mountains and the

Berimbau Trio, in which he starred as the bassist. During a break

south of the state of Minas Gerais, where he came to live with the

between sets with the group, he met Marcia Borges, who encouraged

couple who would become his parents, Lilia and Josino. In spite of

him to become a composer. Nascimento resisted, and, only after

facing prejudice for being a black child raised by a white family, Milton

watching the Fran9ois Truffaut film Jules et Jim three times in a row,

Nascimento had a happy childhood in the countryside of Minas

composed his first three compositions with Marcia: "Cren9a," "Novena,"

Gerais, surrounded by friends, surrounded by music. At five years of

and "Gira Girou." Still in this period, he recorded the single "Barulho de

age, he received a harmonica from his parents and, a little later, a

Trem" with the Holliday Band and the LP Quarteto Sambacana with

small accordion. His favorite pastime was to sit on the steps of the

Pacifico Mascarenhas. In 1966, he took part in the TV Excelsior Music

porch and play these two instruments, and it was on that same porch

Festival in Sao Paulo, performing "Cidade Vazia" by Baden Powell and

that he took his first steps toward becoming a composer, creating

Lula Freire. He took fourth place and decided to move to that city. In

musical stories to amuse his friends and neighbors. One of those

that same year, Elis Regina recorded "Can9ao do Sal."

compadres, Wagner Tiso, became his great friend and musical

partner while still a teenager.

Disappointed by the competitive atmosphere of the festivals, Milton

Nascimento never took part in another one, but in 1967 he met singer

Together, Nascimento and Tiso made up the vocal group Luar de

Agostinho dos Santos. Under the pretext of recording a record of his

Prata ("Silver Moonlight") that performed at dances and on the radios

own, Agostinho asked his new friend for a tape with three songs and

of the towns of the region. The group became Milton Nascimento and

entered him in the second International Song Festival. All three songs

His Combo, and, at the beginning of the 1960s, Nascimento and Tiso

made it into the contest. Nascimento won Best Interpretation, and one

formed W'Boys in Alfenas, also in the south of Minas Gerais. They

of the songs, "Travessia," came in second, making it one of

were so successful that they were invited to take part in the Holliday

Nascimento's best-known and most-recorded songs both in Brazil and

Combo in Bela Horizonte. In 1963, upon finishing a technical course

abroad. From there, Nascimento's career took off. The Mineiro (native

in business that he began after high school, Nascimento moved to

of Minas Gerais) who had made his debut on the stage of the

Bela Horizonte and took up residence in a rented room in the Levy

International Song Festival because of his three qualifying songs left it

Building, where he met the Borges family. Beyond the Holliday, he

as a heavyweight in Brazilian music with a contract to record albums in

became a member of the Celio Balona dance combo. What he earned

Brazil and the United States.

His first albums confirmed him as an innovative composer and

exceptional interpreter. With his third LP, Milton, in 1970, his music
got a pop/rock boost from with the addition of "Som lmaginario," which
he accompanied with electric guitars and keyboards. Two years later,
his work culminated in the double album Clube da Esquina (The Club

PRESENTS

on the Corner), which he shared with L6 Borges and which ended up

being acclaimed as one of the biggest and most important
movements in Brazilian popular music. In the following years, the
"c/ube" expanded to include new members, from old friends to
international stars, including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, James

Milton Nascimento

Taylor, Jon Anderson, Nana Vasconcelos, Ron Carter, Peter Gabriel,

Pat Metheny, Gil Goldstein, Jack Dejohnette, Mercedes Sosa, Fito
Paez, Hubert Law, Sting, Paul Simon, Duran Duran, and Maurice

Wilson Lopes

Guitar

Lincoln Continentino

Piano, keyboard

Gastao Villeroy

Bass

Lincoln Cheib

Drums

Widor Santiago

Metals

White from the group Earth, Wind & Fire.

In the almost four decades of his career since "Travessia," Milton
Nascimento has proven himself one of the most expressive and
important composers and interpreters in Brazil and around the world.
In 1990, he became the first Brazilian to reach the top of the Billboard
world music charts with his album Txai, and in the two following years
he was chosen DownBeat Magazine's World Beat Artist of the Year.
With a Grammy in 1998 for his CD Nascimento, Latin Grammies, and
countless other important awards in Brazil and abroad-such as the
Tenco Prize at the San Remo Festival in 2009-but mostly for being
part of the lives and dreams of people in every corner of the world,
going where the people are, rooting his music in the street corners of
the world and spreading it outward, Milton Nascimento has grown into

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Berklee Performance Center

an artist with one of the most solid and fertile stories in contemporary
music, a story still being told.

No portion of this performance may be photographed, recorded, filmed, or taped.